3016th Meeting, 93rd Session, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

I call to order the 3016th meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The Committee will proceed with agenda item 4, consideration of reports submitted by State parties under article 18 of the Convention. And today the Committee will consider the seventh periodic report of the Republic of Moldova. I wish to stress that NGO representatives may attend this dialogue as observers without being able to take the floor. NGOs have the right of unhindered access to the Committee. As is the usual procedure for treaty bodies, individuals or groups of individuals facing intimidation or reprisals for seeking to cooperate or cooperating with the Committee can inform the rapporteur on reprisals and alternate rapporteur of any alleged incident of intimidation or reprisal, and such complaints can be sent electronically to the CDAW Secretariat. I would now like to welcome the high-level delegation, which is headed by Her Excellency Mrs. Felicia Bechtold, State Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Protection of Family, who will introduce the report. And I would also like to extend a warm welcome to His Excellency Mr. Vladimir Cuc, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Moldova to the United Nations Office in Geneva. I would like to highlight that poor audio quality is a health hazard for the interpreters. To ensure appropriate sound quality, proper conditions and equipment must be ensured, as indicated in the Secretariat technical briefing for State Parties. I would like to remind the head of delegation that the introductory statement should not exceed 30 minutes. And the delegation is further reminded that to allow for full and accurate interpretation of their statements, participants are requested to speak at a reasonable pace. Excellency, you have the floor. You may wish to introduce the other members of the delegation, please.

Good morning, everyone. Dear Madam Chair, distinguished members of the committee, my name is Felicia Bechtold. I'm the State Secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. And I have here with me the ambassador, our ambassador, Vladimir Cook, Ms. Aurelia Bolat, which is the head of the Gender Equality Department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, and Ms. Lilia Russo, which is the head of the European Integration Department at the Ministry of Justice. We have our colleagues from different institutions that are connected online, and you will hear as well the responses and the discussions that we will have together.

It is an honor to participate here today in the dialogue with the CEDAW Committee and to present the progress, challenges, and priorities of the Republic of Moldova in implementing the Convention. On behalf of the delegation of the Republic of Moldova, I would like to express our appreciation for the Committee's continued dialogue and for its recommendations, which have guided an important part of the reforms undertaken in recent years. We also want to extend our sincere thanks to UN agencies, the EU, Council of Europe, development and civil society partners for their continued support. Since our last dialogue, Moldova has faced multiple crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of more than one million Ukrainians crossing our borders to seek safety. At the same time, the energy crisis, which drove energy prices up fourfold, contributed to significant economic pressures. This crisis placed unprecedented pressure on our public systems. Yet, these challenges also tested our institutions and our commitment to equality. They reminded us that gender equality is not a policy for stable times alone. It matters most when societies are under pressure, when resources are scarce, when families are displaced, and when those who are already vulnerable face the greatest risks. In spite of these pressures, we've made progress on advancing gender equality in Moldova. Our focus has increasingly shifted from adopting legislation to implementing it effectively. Since 2022, all government institutions have been actively involved in transposing and implementing the Uik as part of Moldova's path towards EU membership. The accession process has accelerated the pace of reforms, including through the adoption of EU-aligned legislation on equal treatment in access to goods and services, social security, self-employment, and gender balance on the boards of listed companies. At the same time, we have strengthened our legal framework on gender equality and non-discrimination. Following the committee's recommendations, amendments to Law No. 5 from 2006 modernized the definitions of direct and indirect sex discrimination and strengthened our approach to intersectional discrimination, recognizing that women may face multiple and overlapping forms of disadvantage. This approach increasingly informs policies and services for Roma women, women with disabilities, rural women, and refugee and migrant women, supported by disaggregated data and responses tailored to their needs. Allow me to highlight the main progress achieved and the area where gaps persist and implementation needs to be strengthened. On the national gender equality mechanism, the Republic of Moldova has focused on embedding gender equality into the everyday work of public authorities, ensuring that it is integrated into policy making, budget planning, and results monitoring, rather than being the responsibility of specialized structures only. In 2026, the framework governing The Governmental Commission for Equality between Women and Men was revised, with responsibilities clarified and monitoring of the implementation of its decisions strengthened. Also this year, training covered all 14 ministries, as well as gender units at the local level, with a focus on identifying inequalities, integrating them into policies, and developing gender-sensitive indicators. The most important change, however, is the gradual integration of gender equality into the budget process. Starting with the 2025 budget cycle, the budget notice of the Ministry of Finance included requirements concerning gender-sensitive objectives and performance indicators. Gender-responsive budgeting was expanded from two to five ministries, while the number of gender budget subprograms increased from nine in 2024 to 24 in 2025. From 2027, this process is expected to also include the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Health. On disaggregated data on gender-based violence, Since 2024, Moldova has been developing an integrated mechanism for collecting and analyzing information on violence against women and domestic violence. In 2025, the regulatory framework for VO Data, which is an informational system, followed in 2026 by the adoption of a national set of indicators on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. We're also strengthening evidence on prevalence and underlying causes. The IMAGES second study conducted in 2024 allows comparison with findings from 2015. In 2026, the National Bureau of Statistics is conducting the Women's Well-being and Safety Survey. Our aim here is to move beyond counting cases and understand the entire response. What happens when violence is reported, whether institutions respond effectively, and what outcomes victims experience. On gender stereotypes, The gender stereotypes in Moldova continue to influence the distribution of care work, women's participation in the labor market, the gender pay gap, and tolerance of certain forms of violence. The response of Moldova focuses on changing social norms over the long term through education, women's participation, men's involvement in family responsibilities, and public awareness campaign. And I would like to mention here a few of our interventions. The Education 2030 strategy integrates gender equality and curricula across all subjects are currently being revised to reduce stereotypes. In the evaluation of school textbooks, non-discrimination and the gender dimension are mandatory criteria, accounting for 13% of the total score. Changing stereotypes also requires the involvement of men. The proportion of fathers actively involved in raising and educating their children increased from 55% in 2014 to 68% in 2024. This change is supported through fathers clubs and campaigns promoting shared parental responsibilities and family models based on equality. In 2026, the government launched the National Power of Example campaign for 2026-2030, aimed at changing social norms that perpetuate inequality and violence. This marks a shift from isolated campaigns towards sustained, long-term action addressing the social causes of inequality. Access for women and girls in rural areas, including Roma women, women from ethnic minorities, including Gagauz and Bulgarian women, and women from Transnistrian region to essential services remain a priority. The approach of the Republic of Moldova is to bring services closer to beneficiaries through local infrastructure, mobile teams, mobile services, community mediators, and digitalization, in particular for communities living in the Transnistrian region where Moldovan authorities cannot have access directly. In health, 41 youth-friendly health centers operate nationwide, with 40% of beneficiaries from rural areas. Mobile clinics, modernized gynecological and perinatal services, 12 regional colposcopy offices, and free contraceptives for 12 categories of vulnerable groups help expand access to care. In employment, the National Employment Agency mobile teams bring counseling and employment support to remote communities. Digitalization helps reduce territorial disparities. The evo portal offers over 600 public services, more than 70% digitalized. while 121 unified service delivery centers help people access 148 electronic services locally, reducing travel, cost, and time, particularly for women with care responsibilities and reduced mobility. Regarding access to justice, state-guaranteed legal assistance is organized locally, supported by digital tools for document submission and video conference hearings. In September 2026, the government approved the draft new law on the rehabilitation of victims of crime, which introduces an individual assessment of victims from their first contact with authorities and expands access to legal, psychological, social, and medical services, as well as shelter and compensation. In education, flexible mechanisms are used to prevent dropout and exclusion. Pregnant students and young mothers may take examinations externally, and some study programs are also available online. Our goal is to bring services closer to communities, both physically and digitally, and ensure equal access to quality services for all women, regardless of where they live. The challenge for the next stage is to further reduce local disparities and ensure the same quality of services regardless of where women live. On protection against domestic violence.

The Republic of Moldova has moved.

Rapidly with improving its legislation and its implementation after the ratification of the Convention of Istanbul. We've improved our implementation from predominantly sectoral interventions towards an integrated system of prevention, protection and assistance based on coordination, risk assessment case management, multidisciplinary intervention, specialized services, and perpetrator accountability. The legal framework has been strengthened to address serious forms of violence as well. In 2026, the concept of femicide was introduced into criminal legislation, while forced marriage was criminalized with aggravated penalties when the victim is a minor. Immediate protection and preventing escalation are another priority. The number of emergency restraining orders in Moldova increased by 6.7% in one year, from 5,826 in 2024 to 6,218 in 2025. At the same time, the rate of violations of protection orders decreased from 56% in 2023 to 37.4% in 2025. Our priorities are consistent law enforcement, stronger capacity, equitable access to services, interoperable data and perpetrator programs.

Our goal is to have a.

System that identifies risks early and ensures timely protection and support for every victim wherever they live. On technology facilitated gender-based violence and hate speech against women in public life, Moldova treats technology-facilitated violence and sexist speech in public and online spaces as an increasingly important dimension of preventing discrimination and violence against women. In recent years, the response has evolved from monitoring sexist and hate speech towards explicit recognition of forms of digital violence in legislation, the development of reporting mechanisms, and strengthening investigative capacity. Psychological violence now explicitly covers technology-facilitated control, intimidation, and threats to share intimate information without consent. Sexual harassment through information technology is punishable, and stalking through digital platform is criminalized. In media sector, the audiovisual media services code prohibits sexist language and degrading representations. The Audiovisual Council uses specific tools to monitor hate speech and sexist behavior. And during the 2024 presidential campaign, these rules resulted in sanctions against a TV station for discriminatory and impartial coverage of a female candidate. Unpaid care responsibilities remain unequally distributed, affecting women employment, particularly during their prime working years. Moldova is addressing this through greater fathers' involvement, family-friendly workplace policies, and expanding childcare. In 2026, Moldova advanced the ratification of ILO Convention No. 156, reaffirming that family responsibilities should not hinder employment or career development. Our direction is structural. Care should not remain predominantly a woman's responsibility, but should be shared between women and men and supported by employers, communities, and public services. Our priority for the next stage is to expand services increase fathers' involvement, and further reduce the economic penalty associated with care responsibilities. Regarding women engaging in commercial sex, Moldova is gradually shifting from a predominantly punitive approach towards reducing vulnerability and stigma, improving access to services, and strengthening accountability on the demand side. Since 2022, sanctions have been rebalanced. Persons engaged in commercial sex face fines of approximately 3565 euros compared with 90, 120 euros for clients. Those acting against their will are exempt from liability. However, sanctions and stigma may still discourage access to services. For children, the principle is clear: they are victims, not offenders. In 2026, Moldova strengthened criminal legislation on child sexual exploitation, increased the maximum sentence for sexual activities with a child in exchange for remuneration from six to ten years, and reinforced safeguards for child victims. On the access to sexual and reproductive health, the Republic of Moldova continues to pursue expanded access to safe, quality, and non-discriminatory services, with particular attention to women in rural areas, adolescents, and women from vulnerable groups. In 2024, 83% of women accessed abortion services under safe conditions. in accordance with approved standards and protocols. In 2026, a new standardized clinical protocol was approved, strengthening equitable and non-discriminatory access, confidentiality, informed consent, screening for domestic violence, and access to post-abortion contraception. In localities where there is no Gynecologists, counseling, and referral are provided through primary health care, helping to reduce local barriers and bring services closer to women. The data also show a long-term decline in the incidence of abortion. The abortion rate decreased from 17 per 1,000 women of reproductive age in 2003 to 11.5 in 2025. while the proportion of abortions among adolescents decreased from 10.6% in 2003 to 4.9% in 2024. Taken together, these reforms reflect a broader shift. Gender equality is no longer a separate policy area. It is becoming part of how our state legislates, allocates budgets, deliver services and measures results. For the Republic of Moldova, CEDAW means more than a fulfilling international obligations. It means ensuring that every woman and every girl can exercise her rights in practice, safely, with dignity, without discrimination, and with equal opportunities. That is the change we are working towards. That is the commitment we bring to this dialogue, and that is the responsibility we will continue to carry forward. Thank you for this dialogue, for this valuable recommendation, and for your partnership. And please allow to give the floor to Ambassador Cook to deliver a two-minute speech.

Thank you, Madam Head of Delegation, and of course, Excellency, you have the floor, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Madam State Secretary. I would like also to welcome this constructive dialogue and to salute all the members of the committee and all the presence here and civil society from the Republic of Moldova, all others. You've heard and we will be mostly discussing today the domestic implementation of the CEDAW Convention and all our commitments. I would like just to stress a few points which are related to foreign policy dimension, the diplomatic part of it. First, you may be aware that Moldova has been holding presidency of the Council of Europe on November 25 to May 26. Of course, protecting and combating violence against women and girls was one of the important priority of our presidency in the Council of Europe. We've had campaigns. We also had two international conferences focused on femicide and gender-based violence. We also promoted and we have our Moldovan expert in the GREVIO committee. which is group of experts on actions against violence against women and domestic violence in the Council of Europe. Third, Moldova is now a candidate for the Human Rights Council here in Geneva for the term 2027-29. We are pledging for our candidacy to continue strengthening policies aimed at eliminating discrimination, combating gender-based violence, and participation in the decision-making process, which you've heard from the State Secretary and we will be discussing today. We are also co-sponsoring a number of resolutions in the Human Rights Council, which are connected, for example, the latest one on the rights of women and girls in the context of digital technologies. and some others as well. So I wanted to add these small details on the diplomatic part and dimension of our work, and happy to give you back to the word. Thank you.

On behalf of the committee, I thank the head of the delegation and his excellency for their introductory remark. And I just want to inform or reiterate that this dialogue is webcasted on UN Web TV. and that we may be taking some photos for social media, so bear with us, please. Distinguished delegation, the procedure for consideration of periodic reports is for the Committee members to ask questions organized by clusters that largely follow the order of the articles of the Convention, and for the delegation to respond to the questions under each cluster. This procedure is followed throughout the two meetings of today. I'd like to remind the delegation that the Committee will aim to complete its dialogue with the Republic of Moldova by 5:00 p.m. today. I wish to draw also the attention of the delegation to the need for careful time management, and I encourage the delegation to provide precise, short, and direct responses to experts' questions. The head of delegation should indicate when a response cannot be provided, and in that case, your delegation should take note of the questions that cannot be answered immediately. And you may request to submit the pending information in writing within 24 hours, that is one working day, from the end of the constructive dialogue. In this case, by Monday, 12 October at 5:00 p.m. Geneva time. To enable an interactive dialogue, the submission of additional information in writing should be the exception rather than the rule. And if the delegation submits additional information in writing within 24 hours, such information should not exceed 1,500 words and should answer the concrete questions posed by experts. Please note that the responses will be published on the SEDAR website for the 93rd session as they form part of the public dialogue. I should also like to indicate that if necessary, the delegation may be asked to limit its responses due to time consideration. Before calling on experts who wish to pose questions, I wanted also to welcome the part of the delegation that is joining us online, and I trust that the head of delegation will be asking them for their interventions. I now call upon the experts who wish to pose questions under the various articles of the Convention. And experts are also reminded to respect the time limits for questions. And when questions are not sufficiently answered, experts will be given an opportunity to ask follow-up questions for two minutes. We will start with questions relating to articles 1 and 2 of part 1 of the Convention. And I would like to first give the floor to the country rapporteur, Mrs. Maria Miko, to have some opening statement, followed immediately by Article 1 and 2. Madame Miko, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madame Chair. I welcome the high-level delegation of the Republic of Moldova, headed by Ms. Felicia Berthold, to our constructive dialogue here in Geneva. And I wish us a very nice, fruitful day. Moldova has been an extremely important part in my career. When I was elected to the European Parliament, I served as the chair of Moldova delegation. Having said that, one could imagine how many times I have visited, from 2004 till 2009, Chisinau. and not only Chisinau. I have been in Gagauzia, in Transnistria, and not to mention small villages all around Moldova. So I feel that that is very big privilege and honor to be contraporteur multsumesk. Now returning to our constructive dialogue, I would like to begin by noting that overall gender equality in Moldova is improving. Hereby, I also congratulate President Maia Sandu on her re-election to a second term. However, it is no secret that women in politics are the top targets of online misogyny. Moldova still has no legal or institutional mechanisms to prevent or sanction gender political violence. Among the positive developments, I would highlight the amendments to legal frameworks, the integration of the gender dimension in the public policies, and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in 2022. Congratulations. I also welcome the improved quality of state-guaranteed legal aid and the renovation of court buildings to enhance accessibility. I acknowledge the State Party's commitment to assisting female migrants, especially tens of thousands of Ukrainian women and girls. The question remains on how these women are protected against intersecting forms of discrimination. The UN CEDAW Committee, as the watchdog of the Convention, is extremely firm regarding Articles 1 and 2. State parties must enshrine the principle of non-discrimination in law and give attention to both direct and indirect discrimination when scrutinizing domestic legislation. States are required to protect women's rights by addressing prevailing gender relations and the persistence of gender-based stereotypes that affect women. The State Party has been asked to undertake efforts to address gender stereotypes and intersecting forms of discrimination against women based on age, disability, migrant status or other grounds. However, these measures have not yet been implemented. Moldova is relatively well prepared in terms of legislation and policy commitments. The central issue is the persistent implementation gap, as legal commitments have advanced faster than institutional capacity, financing, and accountability. Moldova has promoted the Convention through institutional mechanisms and training programs, yet it remains unclear whether these efforts have had any measurable impact on women's rights in practice. A key issue I would like to highlight is the continued absence of a legal definition of discrimination against women, which is still only at the consultation stage, alongside the lack of gender-sensitive disaggregated data and gender-responsive budgeting needed to monitor the impact on vulnerable women. I am also concerned about gender equality mechanisms, which lack institutional weight, staffing and mandate needed to influence policy and planning processes. Moreover, domestic violence continues to be prosecuted as a mere contravention rather than as a crime, with no binding guidance ensuring consistent application by justice professionals. Access to legal aid. victim support and remedies for survivors also remains unclear, while the State Party relies heavily on community-level outreach rather than systematic protection. I am particularly concerned that women in Transnistria remain excluded from national gender equality policies altogether, with legal representation inaccessible to them. This is equally true for Roma women and girls who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. Finally, access to justice for women with disabilities remains constrained by the absence of legally defined procedural accommodations. In light of this, I would like to raise five questions to consideration. 1. What monitoring or accountability mechanisms exist to ensure consistent application of CEDAW principles across the justice system, and what specific steps have been taken to raise women's awareness of the remedies available to them under the Convention? 2. What is the current situation with the draft law providing a comprehensive definition of discrimination against women, and how does the State Party intend to address the remaining legislative gaps? Three, is the institution standardized data collection system disaggregated by sex, age, and disability applicable to all relevant public policies? Four, what measures does the State Party foresee to repeal Article 78 of the Contravention Code or adopt binding guidance to ensure its consistent application by justice professionals? And number five, what measures has the State Party taken or does it foresee to expand geographically accessible free legal aid, interpretation and mediation services for rural, marginalized, minority, migrant and refugee women? Altogether, I want to thank the State Party for their input, and I look forward to a successful discussion.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Miko. I would like now to give back the floor to the delegation to answer article 1 and 2.

Thank you so much for your questions. You raised a lot of good points. I want to give some specific answers. On the national gender equality mechanism, we have pursued the institutionalization of gender equality within the regular work of public authorities. so that this is not solely the responsibility of specialized structured, but is integrated into the policy making, into the budget planning and the monitoring of results. As far as access to services in the communities, I want to mention that Um, with, um, in 2023, we start implementing the restart social assistance reform with the goal to expand the social assistance services in every corner, in every corner of our country. we have expanded the mobile teams of our social assistance in each rayon. Before, we had only six rayons that had these mobile teams that were going village by village to provide social assistance services. And what I mean by social assistance services, I mean including services for women with disabilities, for children at risk, for elderly people. And right now, we are having more people that are included in our, I would say, we are providing services and we are also monitoring the situation of the population at risk. As far as employment access, in fact, in 2022, the national employment agency introduced mobile teams in order to make sure that we are providing employment opportunities and also involve rural population in the programs that we are offering. With the poverty rate in Moldova is being relatively high. We have about 33% of the population that is considered to be in the poverty line. So we have been extended this support in order to make sure that we're having more people in particular women, because the poverty rate for women is higher than for men to access employment. As far as the definition for the discrimination on the criteria of sex. We have passed recently a law, and this law is in force starting on the 2nd of October of 2026. And following the recommendations of the committee, we made sure that we included direct and indirect discrimination in the definition. And we have, by including this, all of our national policies will consider direct and indirect discrimination by sex, by disability, by ethnicity, by age into all of our services, programs, and budgets, and all the other laws and government decisions. I want to give-- I want to give-- I want to give-- to the representative of the Ministry of Justice to respond to part of the question.

With regard to the legal aid, I wanted to mention that over the past five years, the state guaranteed legal aid mechanism has been significantly strengthened. The system annual budget increased by approximately 47% between 2023 and 2025. the state guaranteed legal aid provided to victims is constantly increasing. The number increased by approximately 100% in 2023 compared to 2022. In 2024, the number increased by 47% compared to 2023, and in 2025, there was a slight decrease of about 3%. With regard to the Roma people, statistical data show that the number of cases in which state guaranteed legal aid is provided is on the rise. In 2025, compared to 2024, the number of cases increased by approximately 21%. The dynamics are also increased for the Gagauzia region. The data show an increase of about 95% in 2025 compared to 2023. Also, paralegals have a key role in ensuring access to justice for vulnerable groups. They facilitate in sharing information on legal matters, counselling and necessary support so that beneficiary can exercise their right and access primary legal aid service. The impact of specialised paralegals include the following. Help in reducing barriers in the process of accessing legal service for vulnerable groups. Provide direct legal support tailored to the specific needs of vulnerable communities. Raise awareness among relevant authorities and institutions regarding the rights of assistant persons. Help prevent and settle legal issues before they occur. Facilitate lessons between beneficiaries and the institutions responsible for protecting the right. The National Legal Aid Council has also set up and tested mobile teams that provide free legal assistance to people. These teams travel to places where there are no legal professionals and provide state-guaranteed primary legal assistance, support social vulnerable individuals who cannot afford to hire an attorney or a legal professional to address their social legal issues. The mobile teams travel to rural areas where there are no paralegals.

I also would like to add that in 2024, we passed a government decision that will basically requires that all the national programs will need to contain disaggregated data on gender equality, on disability. And all the programs must include the impact of those actions that are included in the program. As far as the Article 78 Prime, we will provide an answer in the written form later today. I also want to mention about the VO data. We have passed a government decision this year that will create an informational system where all the gender-based violence data from all the government institutions will be included there. And also, we passed government decisions on the indicators for this data to be collected, and we will have data on, disaggregated data on the victim, also on the perpetrator. I also want to mention that the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has been working lately on developing an informational system in the social assistance, ESOCHAL, where we are gathering the information, we're monitoring, and we're doing the case management for all the beneficiaries. And we are having disaggregated data you know, by gender, by disability, by age, by ethnicity, and this informs us what are the best actions we need to intervene in order to prevent a situation of risk. And And so this informational system, together with other informational systems, will be integrated in the VO data in order to make sure that we as a government intervene and intervene at the right time and prevent any inactions from the part of the authorities due to the cause that we are not having this information at the right time.

With regard to access to justice for persons For persons with disabilities, we would like to mention that the legal framework provides that all persons are entitled to free and equal access to justice without discrimination. Courts are under an obligation to ensure conditions that enable the effective participation of persons with disabilities, including by adapting procedures to individual needs. Such adaption may include the use of alternative means of communication, granting additional time or ensuring the presence of an interpreter or support person. Furthermore, the right of the individual to be heard and to express their view directly is expressly guaranteed, including in situations where the person benefits from the supported decision-making arrangement. Also, persons with disabilities are entitled to state-guaranteed legal aid and conditionality irrespective of their incomes. At the same time, in order to fully align national legislation with the provision of EU directive, the Minister of Justice recently has drafted a draft law amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, which includes provisions regarding the obligation of the criminal investigation authority and the court to verify by any means the level of language skills. Another new element is the establishment of the right to complain about the inadequate quality of interpretation and the obligation of the authority to verify the quality and, if necessary, to replace the interpreter and redraft the procedural documents. At the same time, the right to a written translation of procedural documents essential to understanding the case is regulated, thereby ensuring the full exercise of the right to defence. This draft law now was approved by the Parliament in the first reading.

Thank you. I also want to add that regarding to the Article 71 prime, in the Republic of Moldova, there are two legal provisions. because the law distinguishes between acts based on their severity. So, less serious cases of physical violence resulting in minor injuries are treated as administrative offenses, while more serious cases and non-physical forms of violence, including psychological and economic violence, fall under the criminal law. The aim is not to minimize domestic violence, but to ensure a proportionate legal response. At the same time, the current legal framework and professional training aim to prevent serious cases from being incorrectly classified as minor administrative offenses. Therefore, our priority is to ensure consistent application of the law, and to train judges, prosecutors, and criminal investigators to correctly classify cases and conduct effective investigations. I also want to mention about what we have done specifically on psychological violence. When we did the social assistance reform in 2023, we've created a position of psychologists in each of our social assistance departments. So in addition to the psychologists that we have in the medical sector, in the social assistance, we also have psychologists. And what we did is we trained them specifically on how to provide services to victims of domestic violence, but also how to draft the evidence and to evaluate if the person has experienced psychological violence, which can be used in court as a proof that, yes, the victim has experienced domestic violence. So This really helped victims to have this proof in court, and we are discussing, including with judges, to make sure that they recognize the documentation that is provided by the psychologist in the social assistance.

I want to go back a little.

Bit to the program, to the national programs and integrating the gender perspective into the national programs. Our ministry, in the last few years, we've dedicated resources to our gender equality department. Our gender equality department initially was a very small one. it only had five people. We've increased it, I mean, to seven. We know it's not a lot, but for us, in spite of all of the challenges that we've had in Moldova, the public pressures that we had on our systems is important because each national program or each law that is coming in the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, we are providing we are providing a feedback on is this law, is this national program includes gender lens, and if it doesn't, we are providing with our recommendations and we are making sure that those recommendations are being implemented. Because in order for a law or national program to be passed, they need to obtain a positive aviso, a positive notice from all the institutions. And if they get a negative notice, then we have conversations and discussions with that ministry, and we are making.

Sure that that ministry is integrating.

Those gender lens in order for them to get a positive feedback from our ministry. And also I want to mention that Moldova has several mechanisms to monitor the implementation of equality and non-discrimination legislation. First, the Equality Council examines discrimination complaints, issues, decisions, and recommendations, and has a dedicated monitoring department to follow up on their implementation. Second, in 2026, and this is new, so it's not included in our report, When we submitted it, the government initiated the strengthening of the Governmental Commission for Equality between Women and Men to improve coordination and accountability across public institutions. In addition, we plan to develop specific indicators to monitor the implementation of Law No. 5 from 2006 on equal opportunities for women and men. This will help us identify gaps and assess practical results. Women are informed about their rights and available remedies through the Equality Council, state guaranteed legal aid, specialized support services, and civil society organizations. Our main objective is to ensure that equality legislation is not only adopted but effectively implemented and monitored in practice. So we are very committed on that.

We would also like to mention that the Republic of Moldova has recently adopted a new law on mediation, which entered into force on 12 September 2026. The law aimed to strengthen mediation as an effective alternative dispute resolution mechanism, improve access to justice and reduce the workload of courts. At the same time, disputes involving violence are excluded from mediation in order to ensure the protection of victims and prevent their exposure to further harm. Now, in the Republic of Moldova, currently, there are more than 300 active mediators. And also, it's important to mention that in 2024, a state guaranteed mediation mechanism was introduced for vulnerable groups with the aim of facilitating their access to mediation service and ensuring better access to justice. This mechanism was introduced in 2024.

Thank you, thank you very much, um, as, as Moldova has ratified the optional protocol, we have the opportunity. this morning to also hear from, I will take a follow-up question afterwards, also to hear from our colleague, the chair of the working group on communication, on the issue of a follow-up to a decision. Mrs. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, you have two minutes, please, to raise.

Thank you, Your Excellencies, for this opportunity to address Moldova as chair of the individual complaints process. Excellencies, the Committee takes positive note that in the case of 104 Ciobanu v. Republic of Moldova, in line with the Committee's views adopted in 2019, Moldova reformed the law on public social insurance pensions to provide coverage of the law to parents who are providers of care of children with severe disabilities. Thank you. Moreover, Moldova promulgated Ordinance No. 24/7/1589 of 24th February 2020, establishing a working group tasked with identifying additional measures to strengthen the social protection rights of persons with disabilities. We applaud the State Party for these important normative changes in conformity with CEDAW's views. We also applaud the author for bringing this important case before us, prompting structural legal reform in the State Party. In line with our views, we further invite the State Party to provide adequate support services to allow mothers of severely disabled children to remain in employment if they so wish to. Madam Chair and Excellencies, we also understand that the legal reform does not apply ex post facto to the author. However, we regret that the author, the caregiving mother of the child with severe disabilities, was not awarded individual compensation for the care she provided for her disabled daughter. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam da Silva de Alves. the delegation wants to provide some information on this particular case before I take follow-up question under one and two, please. You have the floor.

Thank you for your question. Indeed, we have paid, specifically on the case that you're mentioning, is that we have paid retroactively for the time that the law applied. And more additional information specifically on on this case we will we will provide we will provide in in written and the recompensation that we've provided was specifically for the moral harm yes.

Excellency, that was such a positive response, and we look forward to hearing more about this. And the very fact that you were able to do this retroactively really shows your commitment to not only law reform, but to the individual complaint. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would like now to open the floor for follow-up question under Article 1 and 2. Madame Miko, you have the floor.

I thank you for responding. response were more or less satisfactory. From my perspective, I got answers. Maybe some, a little more in detail. I talked about refugees. I talked about refugees and still remains the question, how you could know how these women are protected against intersecting forms of discrimination. I keep in mind Ukrainian women and girls, tens of thousands. And now, that's wonderful that your unit, gender equality unit, has increased from five to seven. Congratulations. But you said that equality is being embedded in all public authorities, budgets and policies, not only special structures that you get feedbacks. But now what binding accountability mechanisms and consequences exist for ministries that do not comply? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Miko, but I would like this, the follow-up question is a little bit on also Article 3, so maybe if you don't mind, we listen to a question under Article 3, and this question is already noted, so we can have the answers on the delegation of authority to the different ministry, the machinery, and how accountability is going on, if you don't mind. I'd rather that we keep this question together with the following article that we are going to address, if you don't mind. Can I give now the floor to Mrs. Corinne Detmeyer, Bermlen for three and a half minutes. I like the precision of the half. For Article 3, we watch you. You have the floor, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This was a compromise between Article 4 and Article 3 in our questions to Moldova. And I would like also to welcome the esteemed delegation of Moldova. I will discuss the national machinery for the advancement of women, and I hope I will not duplicate the follow-up question, but if I do, that will save you one answer. The Committee commends the pilot programs on gender-responsive budgeting and recommends further institutionalizing those initiatives, including dedicating funding for accessibility measures for women with disabilities and targeted measures for women facing intersecting forms of discrimination, such as Roma women and women living with HIV. Has the State Party considered legally mandating gender-responsive budgeting throughout the budget cycle by amending the public finance law and the framework for budget development, approval, and amendment? Will the State Party establish a mechanism to monitor its implementation, including by strengthening the collection of data disaggregated by sex and other intersecting factors? The Committee looks forward to the upcoming report on the role and responsibility of the gender units. It notes that at the local level, gender units and focal points lack clear mandates, resources and personnel. Adequate integration of gender equality mechanisms is crucial amid the ongoing consolidation of local administration. How will the State Party, is my question, ensure the integration of gender units into consolidated municipalities with the allocation of adequate resources? What steps will the State Party take to integrate gender equality perspectives and mechanisms into the public administration reform strategy 2027 to 2030? The Committee welcomes the revised draft regulation on the Government Commission for Equality between Women and Men, but notes that pending its operationalization, there is no national body coordinating and monitoring gender equality policies. Will the State Party promptly adopt the regulation and allocate adequate resources, it's a lot about resources, or extend the mandate of the National Agency for Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence to cover all gender equality policies? The Committee is concerned about the financial vulnerability of the national human rights institutions due to their dependence on the executive branch and external funding. Despite a recent salary increase, staff remuneration remains low relative to other public positions, resulting in unfilled vacancies. The recent law that limits the Ombudsman immunity is particularly concerning. What steps will the State Party take to amend Law No. 1/2023 to restore functional immunity for the People's Advocate Office in accordance with the Paris Principles and the recommendations of the Global Alliance of NHRIs? And how will the State Party ensure adequate human, technical and financial resources and financial independence for its Ombudsman and Equality Council? Four seconds left. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Detmer. And I will, because of the relationship between the follow-up question and this question, I will give back the floor to the delegation, if you don't mind, Mrs. Jarbousinova. Then we'll go to Article 4, if you don't mind. Please, you have the floor.

I want to elaborate a little bit on the consequences, if I may, on the consequences for those that are not complying with the gender equality indicators. So the government decision from 2024, specific on strategic planning, specifically mandates that all the new programs, all the new national programs, they need to contain an evaluation on gender equality lens. So in the informational note, when promoting a national program, the institution has to do an evaluation how this national program or how this law or government decision regulation will impact on gender equality, but also we would need to have, you know, in gender equality disaggregated, like women with disabilities, Roma women, women from other ethnic minorities. So, So it's an obligation to include this information. It's an obligation to include this information and it is, so this is our monitoring mechanism on how we're checking to see if the government institution has included its impact on our citizens. I want to give the floor to the Ministry of Education and then later on to the Ministry of Health regarding the question of specific comment on the refugees that you've mentioned. I want to give the floor to the Ministry of Education representative.

Good afternoon. So regarding our national policy in the field of supporting refugee women and girls, I'd like to mention that the Republic of Moldova has taken measures to ensure the continued access of refugee children, including girls, to education and to support their integration into the national education system. To operationalize this, the Ministry issued the order in September 2023 approving the instruction on the integration of children from refugee families from Ukraine and other war-affected countries into general education institutions. This institutional framework was reinforced through several targeted measures in 2024 and 2025. Also, it is worth to mention that a dedicated section on the Ministry's website supporting children and youth from Ukraine was created, covering the legal framework, access to education, useful resources, and contact points needed for refugees. Also, in October 2025, we approved the curriculum for refugees to learn Romanian language. developed in partnership with our international partners that enabling students to reach level A1, B1 proficiency in Romanian through age and level adapted lessons combined with their cultural integration activities. In 2026, the Ministry approved measures to support the implementation of Romanian curriculum to refugee and diaspora learners. Also, it's worth mentioning that training was provided to approximately 43 trainers who subsequently supported the trainings for more than 500 teachers. teachers. Also, it is worth mentioning that language and pedagogical support is further developed through the network of 35 DoTeach laboratories nationwide that currently assisting about 1000 of children. Out of this, about 400 are studying in Romania with more than 30 teachers dedicated, participated in a seminar on accelerated learning methods for refugees. Also, we have a pilot project in the Taras Shevchenko Gymnasium in Chisinau that provide classes with the Ukrainian instruction in Ukrainian language. Also, it is worth mentioning that in February 2026, we approved an action plan for learning and promoting the Ukrainian language within the Ukrainian community in the country, including refugees. And currently, Ukrainian now are taught in 27 schools to almost 3,000 students. And we also accommodate about 40 teachers of Ukrainian language and literature that completed continuing education courses in this summer. Also, we have quota on access and admission for refugee children, benefited from 10% of admission quota for grades one and grade 10, alongside with simplified enrollment procedures. I would like to mention that we have introduced currently a monitoring mechanism to strengthen data reliability across all these measures. This mechanism was introduced in April 2025. And in cooperation with the local education authorities, we are monitoring the refugee children, both that are included in our educational system, but also those that are studying online in Ukrainian schools. also to improve the integration of the Ukrainian refugee in the schools. We introduce measures to support since September 2025, all students in grade 1 to 9, including refugee children, they will receive free daily breakfast nationwide. And also they will receive one time of financial allowance of 1,000 lei per people. We will continue to improve all this mechanism and to ensure that all the refugees in our educational system are safe. They have to benefit from the psychological support and for all activities, extracurricular activities that are provided within the schools, also during the summer. It's all on my behalf. Thank you.

Yeah, I also would like to answer to the question regarding the budgetary, the gender mainstreaming in the budget. Through the instructions on, through the instructions from the budgetary notice from the Ministry of Finance, the central public government authorities are required to include objectives and performance indicators that are sensible to gender in their proposals, in their budgets.

This methodology is applied and is extended to the ministries.

I've mentioned that we included gender budgeting.

At the Ministry of Labor and Social.

Protection, at the Ministry of Agriculture, at the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization. And starting from 2027, we will integrate gender budgeting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Health. I want to mention that the budgetary methodology for the government institutions have been updated through the order of the Minister of Finance, number 124 from 2023. And the strategy for development of the management of public finances for 2023-2030 establishes the application and implementation of BSG as a standard practice that we are extending.

The knowledge in the gender equality are strengthened through including specific modules in the annual plan for.

Training and development, professional development of the civil servants. As well in the budgetary sector, the system for salaries, which is regulated in law 270 from 2018, is also structured on occupations and levels and is based on principles of non-discrimination and equal pay for equal work.

I also want to say.

That the reporting that all the ministries that are part of the gender budgeting of the.

BSG is that is made based on the indicators, specifically on the is made on indicators.

Also on the medium term.

So each of this ministry that is proposing the budget for the next three years.

They are also including the, uh, the, uh, gender, uh, budgeting, um, um, indicators.

I also want to talk a little bit.

About the access to refugees, to those that are undocumented, and also all foreigners in Moldova. In December 2025, we've updated 34 government decisions that are regulating social services. And we've included refugees, undocumented people, and foreigners in the government decisions that are on different social services. And I want to mention here, we've updated the government decision on shelters, where we improved the minimum requirements and the minimum standards according to the Istanbul Convention. We also improved the minimum standards for the maternal centers. So maternal centers are spaces where women that are in difficult situation with their children, they can be hosted for a period of time.

In this.

Maternal centers, we have teenagers where they are being, I would say, refused by their parents and they don't have a place where to go. So this social services are for them. And we've included refugees, we've included undocumented people and foreigners to be able to access from those services. We've also improved the minimum standards for shelters for human trafficking victims, and we've included access to refugees, undocumented people, and other foreigners in Moldova. We've also updated our minimum standards for the barnahus. for the Barnahus centers, which are centers for providing investigation and providing support for children that are a witness of crime victims. And we've included as well, we've included as well undocumented and refugees as well. And I want to mention that Even recently, we had a refugee woman with three children that we were able to provide shelter recently. And how the refugee women are benefiting from these services, we either have referrals from the NGOs or they are coming independently to our shelters. And also at this time, we have increased the number of shelters for domestic violence victims and survivors.

In 2024.

Excuse me, I'm really sorry to interrupt. And I know it's tempting because the question bring always elements, but we try to try to keep this under article five where you have the ample opportunity to answer on domestic violence, including also for other kind of population. I'd like us to be able to be all together, our colleague and the delegation discipline. to cover article 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, and 9 before lunch break, so that we can really devote time in the afternoon for the remaining article. So if you don't mind, I just want to have a look if there is any urgent follow-up question, and then I want to move to article 4. Please, Madam Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have learned a lot about shelters and trafficking, but I did not hear any answers on the questions that I had. My questions were about, I'm not going to repeat them, but my questions were about funding, budgeting, monitoring, immunity, and the government commission on equality. So I would very much like to see answers to this, and to provide an answer on what steps the government will take to ensure the integration of gender units into consolidated municipalities with the allocation of adequate resources. So I would suggest, Madam Chair, that my questions on paper will be sent to the delegation and that we can then expect the answers on these questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. I think it's a very fair proposal. I know you have the answers, and it's not going to burden you, but it's better that we get them in writing, and then we can move on now to article 4 and give the floor to Mrs. Jarboush-Hinova, also for three and a half minutes. Please mind the half minute.

Madam Chair, distinguished delegation, I commend the state party for several measures under Article 4. The electoral code sets a minimum 40% quota for each sex on candidate lists, with at least four candidates of each sex for every 10 places. Political parties must use 20% of their annual public funding to promote women's participation, and 20% of Moldova's UN peacekeeping positions are reserved for women. These are genuine temporary special measures, but I have four concerns. First, the concept. The report lists under Article 4 general measures such as voluntary corporate commitments under the Women's Empowerment Principles and entrepreneurship programs, while under General Recommendation No. 25, these are general policies, not temporary special measures. Second, the electoral quota. In 2025, women made-up 44.5% of candidates, slightly fewer than in 2021, and men still dominated the top positions on the list. Public support is eroding. The share saying women have no place in politics rose from 18.2% in 2021 to 26.2% in 2025. Only about 24% of mayors elected in 2023 were women, and in Gagauzia, only two of 35 deputies in the People's Assembly are women. Third, the executive and security sectors. The law in the government contains no gender quota, and only four of the 17 government members are women. The National Action Plan on Resolution 1325 sets a target of only 10% women in decision-making positions in the security sector, although women already hold about 29.5% of army leadership posts. A temporary special measure should accelerate change, not confirm the status quo. In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, women hold only 15.1% of management positions. And the data on the army are also inconsistent. The Ministry of Defense earlier reported 28% women, while UN Women now reports over 21. Fourth, disadvantaged groups. Roma merit scholarships cover only 50 students, 23 of them girls. The report contains no comparable measures for women with disabilities or rural women. Will the State Party introduce a gender quota for appointments to the government and to leadership positions in law enforcement? Will the State Party require alternating women and men at the top of candidate lists, with sanctions for non-compliance? Does the quota apply to elections to the People's Assembly of Gagauzia? What temporary special measures with targets are planned for Roma and Gagauz women, women with disabilities and rural women. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Yarbuzhynova. I would give back the floor now to the delegation to answer on Article 4, and I would like really the answer to be focused so that we can move to the Article 5 and 6, 7 and 8 and 9 before lunch break. Please, madam, you have the floor.

Thank you so much. I would like to invite Marina Morozova, an MP from the Moldovan Parliament, to respond to part of your question.

Dear Chair, distinguished members of the committee, dear colleagues. Moldova made an important steps on gender equality, as it was mentioned, we have 40% of women in the parliament. This is because of the modification on electoral code. And also the code requires at least 40% of each sex on parliamentary, but also on local electoral list. So with at least four candidates of each sex in every 10 position. We also see the results on the local election that we had earlier, and we have increased the number of local councillors in the regions. Also, we have changed the electoral code, and in the next national local election, we will have the quota in for Gagauzia region. So there is the important step in this way. Also the women are represented in the leadership of the parliament. We have one of two deputy speaker as women. Four of 12 standing parliamentary committees are chaired by women. Also we have four women as members of permanent bureau and two of six parliamentary fractions are led by women. As we see, we have important participation of women in the parliament, in executive and in the government. We don't have the regulations, but because we are parliamentary country, when the proposals for the government comes to parliament, we also are looking for participation of women as ministries and state secretaries. Also in the parliament, we have created strong women and peace caucus that brings together a member of parliaments across political groups. And this caucus every month has different public hearings on gender domain, and we want to underline that a lot of important reforms were made on this on these platforms and we will be aligned with all conclusions and all that you will bring to us so to implement in our legislation.

Thank you. I would like to give the floor to our representative from the Central Electoral Commission.

Distinguished committee.

I also want to add that the Electoral Code now is the first time when applied in Gagauzia in election. That's why the representative of method of stabilization of the quota will be applied only for the next election. Central Electoral Commission insists to modify to electoral court and to apply this kind of nominating in the Gagauzia because the law enforcing in Gagauzia now, it has no obligation to respect the quota.

I also want to add on the gender equality quota in the government. I want to tell you that this is an action in our national program for gender equality, and we are in discussions with the parliament and also internally in the government to see how we can move this forward. As far as the other questions on the temporary special measures for Roma women and Gagauz, we will provide a response to this in the written form. I also want to invite our representative from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to speak more about the implementation of the resolution 1325.

Hello. We are right now on the second generation of the national action plan on resolution 1325. It's been a progress that was confirmed by both local and international evaluation experts and monitoring mission. We have a good partnership both with the local security structures and as well with the international organizations and donor on this behalf. As the main results of of the implementation, we have a substantial increase of the participation and presence of women in the security sector, which right, right now, rise up to 26% in, in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as such. As well, this indicator is close to this figure as well in the other institution of law enforcement, like the National Administration for Penitentiaries, the State Protection Guard Service, as well as Ministry of Defense. Uh, I would like to notice that, um, once we started the monitoring of this indicator, uh, like in the first, like 10 years ago, it was badly around 13%, so now it's actually doubled. When we speak about the women in the decision making position, we would say that this, uh, figure as well increased substantially, so right now we have around, uh, 15% of, uh, the, um… women in decision making position, which is a substantial increase. And here I would like to highlight that this decision making position as well, the top position of the ministry, the prime ministry or the secretary of state.

Thank you. Yeah, we may.

Thank you very much. I would like to give the floor for follow-up question to Mrs. Mikko. And do you have any follow-up question? No? OK. Mrs. Mikko, and then we move to article 5, please, Mrs. Mikko.

Thank you very much. So temporary special measures are known as article about quotas. Then we have adopted new general recommendation 40. Basically, that is about parity, which is parity 50/50. How that reflects or is spread, first of all, in your department of seven under the Labour Ministry and wider, because that is not anymore like 40% quota, but that is parity. Just a question, because in fact, We would like to get reflections. And please, could you deliver the answer on that?

Thank you for your question. I want to say that in general, women in our government are definitely more than 50%. We have this tendency to have more women working in the government. And the reason why is that the salaries are not necessarily the highest in the government. So men typically prefer to work in the private sector in order to have a higher salary. So in our ministry, definitely we have more women as in other ministries. in the Ministry of Justice is the same, my colleague is telling me. In the Gender Equality Department, right now we have one man out of the seven people that are in this department. And we understand And this is, you know, we're talking about stereotypes. We understand that, you know, women are more willing to accept low paying jobs. And the fact that government salaries are lower, you know, are not men are not being very much encouraged to work in the government. Now, we have other ministries where we have more men, like the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And I know the Minister of Internal Defense is a woman, and she is very committed to improve the gender quotas in her ministry, but also in the institutions under her ministry. And I also want to mention that right now we are working on the implementation of the European Union directive, which will ensure equal access in employment and occupation. We are currently modifying 23 laws where we are making sure that women are not being discriminated in the promotion, can return after the maternity leave. And when I say about the 23 laws, I'm specifically talking about the special laws. Here we're talking about diplomats, we're talking about NPs, we're talking about judges, prosecutors, where right now in our laws, women can be suspended for maternity leave. And what we are doing right now, we are eliminating this clause in all of our 23 special laws and making sure that making sure that women can return to their job that they did without any discrimination. And we also consider parity a legitimate and a necessary objective. However, moving from 40% to 50/50 should be preceded by serious legislative and political analysis, including consideration of placement rules, sanctions, and women representation in leadership positions. I hope I answered your question.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, one short follow up question, but really we have to move to article five immediately afterwards, please go ahead, Madam.

Receive an answer on measures which are undertaken or will be undertaken to increase the number of women, not in civil service. We are not speaking about participation of women in the ministry. We are speaking about the participation of women in decision making, women taking leadership position. So maybe in the written form, you will provide us the answers on your actions where quarters will be undertaken to increase the number of women in decision-making to reach this real parity between men and women.

Thank you very much for this comment. That's very constructive, Mrs. Yarbuzhynova. I would like now, if possible, to move to Article 5 and would like to give the floor to Mrs. Genoveva Ticheva for five minutes. You have the floor, madam, please.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, distinguished representatives of the Government of the Republic of Moldova. I will discuss with you some issues on problematic areas in relation to gender stereotyping and to gender-based violence against women and girls. Patriarchal attitudes and prejudices about aspirations, capabilities and roles of women and men in family and in society are still deeply rooted and undermine the advancement of women in all spheres of society. They make the precondition for gender-based violence against women and girls, for the gender pay gap and the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work borne by women. Moreover, increased gender stereotyping and support for the traditional gender roles is observed in the attitudes in Moldova, particularly among young people and men, and it is alerting. Connected to that is the increase of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, and this despite some measures of civil, administrative and penal law the State Party has taken. It has the forms of gender disinformation, deepfakes, harassment, and hate speech targeting women, extreme misogyny, and specifically against women in public life, due also to weak regulation of digital platforms and lenient enforcement of existing provisions and sanctions. Worrying trends show also increase of online violence and abuse against children. 17% of Moldovans consider hate speech a serious problem on social media. So the question is, when is the State Party intended to adopt a comprehensive strategy for combating gender stereotyping in society by encompassing all relevant stakeholders with clear benchmarks and mechanisms for regular assessment? And within that, what measures will the State Party take to institutionalize and adequately resource gender transformative programs, including engaging men and boys and to establish measurable indicators tracking changes in men's attitudes and behaviors? To bear in mind that the committee is underway to adopt general recommendation 41 on gender stereotyping and we hope the state party will follow the process and benefit of its implementation. What steps will the State Party take to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, gender disinformation and misogynistic content online, including through stronger regulation of digital platforms and adequate and upgraded training of all key professionals involved in prevention and protection? Concerning gender-based violence, we commend the adherence to the State Party to the Istanbul Convention and the system of monitoring by GREVIO, which will allow you to further improve your legislation and practice. The legislative reform carried out between 2023 and 2026 through a series of laws, including law criminalizing femicides, one of the results. And the establishing of a coordinating body as the National Agency for Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, the approval of the framework regulations on the specialized services is also in advance. It's also in advance. Nevertheless, implementation of legislation remains a serious problem, and I will address some of the problematic areas. I will come back to Article 78 of the Contravention Code. It has not been repealed yet. Just the opposite, by a law from 2026, it consolidated the contravention regime and the use of this code for domestic violence cases, thus depriving women at risk of further violence from effective criminal law protection. As a result of the prevailing application of the Contravention Code, in 2025, there were 872 contravention cases versus 1,336 criminal cases. When is the state party intended to repeal and enforce effective protection? by criminal law instead of administrative law, by ensuring that all domestic violence cases are prosecuted exclusively as a criminal offence. The maintaining of this provision and the use of the contravention code when domestic violence usually escalates puts women at high risk, including of femicide, and indicates that the problem is systematic. We know that the application of the contravention code was found by the CEDAW committee itself as violating women's rights. In fact, in the VC deceased versus Moldova, communication number 105 from 2016, the woman victim, a woman with disabilities, was not protected timely by criminal law and lost her life also as a result of the laxity of the legislation and of the related attitudes of the law enforcement. Second, the joint protection of women and children from violence remains inefficient in Moldova. We refer also to the case Luca versus Moldova of the European Court of Human Rights, where the state party was found in serious violation of the European Convention of Human Rights. What measures will the State Party take to harmonize frameworks for violence against women and children, including through a common multi-sectoral protocol and taking into account the risk of also vicarious violence? What measures for risk assessment and risk management has the State Party taken in case of domestic violence which involve child custody and child contact? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Tischeva. I now would like to give back the floor to the delegation. Article 5, please.

Thank you. I would like to give the floor to Ms. Marina Morozova to speak on digital violence.

Thank you. We made several modifications on legislative changes addressing digital violence and cyber-talking. In 2025, Parliament considered additional legislative measures to protect women and girls from violence and harassment, including digital environment. So the measures included recognition of a digital dimension of violence, two, protection against abuse carried out through informational technologies and electronic communication, three, the possibility of requiring to remove abusive content, four, restriction on access to electronic communication networks, Five, extending the emergency restraining orders from 10 to 20 days. And also important step was extending the protection order from three to six months. These measures were in 2025, but also it is important that the mechanism of implementation to real and the women to feel the real protection from our institutions. Thank you.

Yeah, I would like to respond to the questions on the stereotypes. First of all, we have, right now we are implementing a national program on gender equality for 2023-2027. where the fourth objective is to increase the number of men that are promoting gender equality. And we are doing right now through different campaigns where we promote men specifically to increase, I mean, to show examples of how they have childcare responsibilities to be to promote these examples. But I want to mention that specifically that in the last few years, we have been promoting several family, several family friendly policies. One of them is we increase the paternity leave Right now, the paternity leave in Moldova is 15 days, and we are also, and it's being paid 100% of the man's salary. We have fostered, we've created two additional options for childcare leave, also with the intent to have more men that are taking childcare leave. So right now we have one year where in the first year the person is receiving 90% of their salary as childcare leave. The second option is two years in the first year the person.

Is receiving or the parent is receiving 60% of their salary and in the second year, 30%.

And the third option is the same option that we that we've had, which is 30% of their salary. And I want to say that the number of men taking paternity leave has been some somewhat increasing. We have about more than 4000 men out of 13,000 of children that are receiving this childbirth, I mean, parents that are receiving this childbirth allowance. And in terms of parental leave, we have about 6,000 men that are taking at some point parental leave. Our parental leave is non-transferable and can be shared among parents. In order to promote women's return to the workplace because we had a pretty generous maternity leave. We have allowed women, we've changed the law and we have allowed that women can work until they are 36 weeks of pregnancy if they wish and if they have a positive medical advice. Before, women were not allowed to work after 30 weeks. And we had, I mean, we had situations where women were working in the informal market informally and they were being paid informally. In order to encourage women in particular to return to the workplace, we have invested in our childcare system. We have developed since 2023 until now nearly 1,500 new childcare places, both from the state budget and from the development partners.

This year, we are investing 9.5 million euros.

To develop nearly 2,000 childcare places, specifically for children up to the age of three in order to in order to have more women to return back to the workplace. We have been conducting several campaigns. One of this campaign is the power of example that we are conducting this year, but also up until 2030 with the goal to make sure that we have not just sporadic campaigns, but kind of a long-term implementation of an informational campaign. I also want to add that Moldova has taken concrete steps to address sexist and misogynistic content and strengthen the protection of women and girls in the digital environment. First, according to the information provided by the Audiovisual Council, the Council monitors sexist language, hate speech and discriminatory content in audiovisual media, including during electoral campaigns. Second, in 2023, specialized guidelines were developed to identify and monitor sexist speech and behavior in traditional and online media. Third, the council applies sanctions when violations are identified. And as I mentioned previously, in 2024, a television channel was fined for discriminatory coverage of a female presidential candidate. During the 2025 parliamentary elections, the council also monitored 22 television channels, including the representation of women and men. And fourth, in December 2025, we've launched a violence dot MD platform, which is run by an NGO, La Strada from Moldova. And this is a national online resource dedicated to preventing technology facilitated violence against women and girls. The platform helps women recognize digital abuse, understand how to report it, and you can actually report and take down the pictures from the social media. And women can also access free, confidential psychological counseling and support services from this platform. Finally, media literacy and awareness raising activities contribute to preventing discrimination and improving understanding of online violence. These measures combine prevention, monitoring, sanctions and direct support for victims. Our priority is to ensure that women and girls are better informed, protected and supported both online and offline. And for the last question, I want to give the floor to the representative of the Ministry of Justice.

And with regard to criminal and contraventional liability, as was mentioned, over the past few years, the Parliament has taken several measures to strengthen the criminal policy framework regarding the punishment of violence against women and girls, specifically by increasing the penalties. Furthermore, the amendments made to Article 201/1 of Criminal Code have strengthened the applicability of criminal law provision to forms of non-physical violence, psychological and economic violence. This legislative measure has contributed to a more clear distinction between acts that should be addressed under criminal law and under the Misdemeanor Code. The current legal framework allows for a gradual and proportionate approach to liability, taking into account that the case law of the European Court of Human Rights qualifies that the misdemeanor proceedings are part of criminal law. At the same time, it is considered important to continue efforts to train justice sector actors to ensure the correct classification of facts and effective investigation.

Thank you very much. Follow-up question, or we can take them up also after 6:00, whatever. Okay, I think it's better, if you don't mind. Thank you very much. I'd like now to give the floor for Article 6 to Mrs. Bastille Toledo Vasquez for five minutes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's an honor for me to take part in this constructive dialogue. I.

Apply that to all languages aside from English. I was supposed to just alert you to use the the interpretation because the intervention was going to be in Spanish. So I'll do that systematically now. I think it's better. Please, are you ready on the machine? Go ahead. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. As I was saying, it's an honor to take part in this constructive dialogue. I'm going to address state obligations for the eradication of trafficking in women and girls, including trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Are you okay?

Can you hear me? Thank you. The Committee appreciates Moldova's efforts to combat trafficking, including legislative and political measures and mechanisms for identifying and providing assistance to victims. Yet there are still challenges in terms of prevention, protection, access to justice and coordination. On prevention, poverty, discrimination, social and economic exclusion and unsafe migration continue to expose trafficking to the most marginalised groups of women and girls, including women and girls with disability, in particular those living or who have lived in institutions, such as we have seen in the exploitation of girls in domestic work and farm work in residential institutions. What measures have been adopted to guarantee periodic inspection of residents residential institutions, as well as to guarantee protection from trafficking in the processes of deinstitutionalisation, in line with the decision of 2025 from the European Court of Human Rights in the case of IC versus Moldova. Furthermore, for women and girls who are Roma, whose parents have migrated or are living in the street, living in Transnistria, as well as migrants, refugees and stateless persons, are particularly exposed to the risk of trafficking. Although we have seen measures adopted to support the Roma population and measures that have been geared to protecting Moldovan women who are looking for employment abroad, we would like to know what the impact of these measures has been on preventing trafficking, particularly when it comes to women with low levels of education. How are you planning to step up oversight for private employment agencies? What about the adverts for jobs that are fraudulent online, and other forms of exploitation online? What measures are being taken to try to proactively identify victims of trafficking? Prevention also requires a distinction between trafficking for sexual exploitation and voluntary sex work. However, criminalising sex work compels sex workers to go underground, which increases the risk of trafficking. Although the committee has recommended on repeated occasions the eradication of the forms that criminalise sex workers, that is still being applied. Is the State party considering adhering to the previous recommendation from the Committee? Looking at protection, the Committee observes the rates of identification of victims of trafficking are low, particularly amongst the most vulnerable groups. There's a lack of clear, efficient mechanisms to apply in a coordinated and complementary way the frameworks on trafficking, on gender-based violence and protecting victims. And this can lead to gaps in identification and protection. We would also like to know why it is so difficult for foreign victims to have access to resident and work permits. What measures exist to guarantee support in the longer term, including access to housing, healthcare, psychosocial support, education and employment? Looking at justice, we value and appreciate the measures taken to address secondary victimisation in judicial proceedings, but we would like to know how you guarantee that timely access to specialised legal assistance is provided to victims and effective access to remedy and compensation, because in 2024, the courts granted compensation to only 13 victims. Although the legal framework provides for extended responsibility for illicit acts committed as a direct consequence of trafficking, we are concerned that reclassifying or recategorising certain cases, for example, those that begin with an investigation into trafficking that then are recategorised as being procurement or forced work, Can that classification lead to victims losing protection because of the illicit acts that could have occurred in the context of trafficking? Are there safeguards in place to avoid such a scenario? Finally, national and regional mechanisms are fundamental, but many local commissions are inactive because of a lack of resources. What measures are planned, therefore, to bolster funding and operational capacity and to guarantee resources and indicators from a gender-based perspective in implementing and carrying out follow-up for the National Action Plan on trafficking? Thank you.

I just want also to use this opportunity to draw the of the delegation that we will have a different intervention in the variety of languages. We are really very much committed to. linguistic diversity, so I alert you to find the channel for Arabic, French, Spanish and Chinese for the rest of the day. But now we are just going to take up those questions and we will come back to the second part in the afternoon. the third part, I mean, in the afternoon. Now you have the floor to answer the questions under Article 6, and after that I will take follow-up questions on 5 and 6 together. Please.

I would like to give the floor to the representative of the Ministry of Justice.

Thank you. With regard to prevention and fight against human trafficking, you would like to mention that recently the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted a new law to strengthen the prevention and fight against human trafficking and to improve the protection of victims. The law also bring our national legislation closer to the EU standards. The new law puts a focus on the protection of victims and on gender sensitive approach. The new provision expressly include new form of exploitation within the with the definition of trafficking, namely forced marriage, the use of women as a surrogate mother or for reproductive purposes. This form of exploitation particularly affect women and girls and are closely linked to their autonomy, free consent and bodily integrity. Pregnancy and maternity are also expressly included among the situation that may make a person vulnerable to trafficking. The criminal legislation also introduced aggravating circumstances for the use of information technologies and electronic communication in trafficking-related activities. In this way, the legislation has been adapted to new social and technological challenges and covers emerging forms of exploitation. The law also gives greater attention to foreign victims of trafficking, including through the possibility to grant or extend temporary residence, protection against removal or expulsion during the relevant period, the right to work without an additional work permit for victims who have temporary residence, the extension of protection measure to presume victim during the reflection period. These safeguards are particularly important for migrant women who may face multiple vulnerabilities, including an insecure migration status, economic aspect and risk of exploitation. The law will enter and to force on 9 December 2026. With reference to other support mechanism, in order to align national legislation with EU legislation regarding victim protection, a draft law has been drafted and is currently in Parliament process. The main changes concern revising the definition of victims, to expressly include other affected persons, particularly in the event of the victim's death. Establish the victim's right to be heard by a person of the same sex, except when this would interfere with the proper conduct of the criminal proceedings. Simplify the procedure for applying for financial compensation by eliminating certain excessive conditions and documents. Providing victims who are persecuted by internal structures in the Transnistria region, which are outside the effective control of the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, with support services, including state-guaranteed legal aid without condition, regardless of income. Regulating the procedure for granting financial compensation in cross-border cases. Exempting victims from paying fees for the bailiff services. Regulating the procedure for granting financial compensation in cross-border cases. This draft was approved by the Parliament in its first reading, and now it's in parliamentary platform for discussion.

I would like to give the floor to the representative of the General Inspectorate of Police. I think I will add on this question until we have our representative of the police being connected. To complement the information provided by the Ministry of Justice, I would like to highlight the measures taken in the area of social protection and victim assistance. So we are working to strengthen the national referral mechanism to ensure early identification, safe referral, and better coordination between institutions. We have strengthened the standards for assisting victims of trafficking and introduced updated case management procedures. Our approach is based on the individual needs and vulnerabilities of each victim. We provide specialized services for women and children, as well as services for men who are victims of human trafficking. We continue to organize joint training for social workers, police offenders, and other professionals. These trainings focus on vulnerability assessment and victim-centered assistance. We also provide repatriation assistance to Moldovan citizens who have been trafficked abroad. So each year, we are providing these services to Moldovan citizens in these situations abroad. At the same time, foreign victims identified in Moldova can access protection and specialized social services, including psychological support, shelter, a safe shelter for victims of human trafficking. We recognize that Moldova is no longer a country of origin. We are increasingly facing risks of trafficking and exploitation in our own territory. And we are working to strengthen the legal framework and adapt our protection services to these new challenges. I want to mention that Each company that brings foreign workers and is working as a temporary agent, they need to register, they need to notify the labor inspection with the names of those workers and where they are working. And then the labor inspection is inspecting those employers to make sure that the rights of foreign workers are being protected.

As well, I want to mention about the private employment agencies.

The companies that are running as private employment agency, they are notifying the National Employment Agency on the contracts on the contracts of the foreign workers. And we are monitoring and we're having like a list of good faith private employment agency as well. This list is being shared with the labor inspectorate and the labor inspectorate is inspecting the the private employment agencies to make sure that they are sending, that the workers that are being, benefiting from these services are, their rights are protected. Now, we also have agreements with other countries where Moldovan workers are working in other countries, and our authorities are working in close cooperation with the Ministry of Labor of the respective countries, with the national employment agencies of those respective countries, with the labor state inspectorate. And we had cases where our Moldovan workers have been, their rights haven't been protected and they have been exploited for labor purposes. And we intervene at the highest levels and those issues have been solved. And now I want to give the floor.

Hello, everyone. From the Republic of Moldova, we'd like to It was related to traffic of human being. So we have criminalized in the conventional code this illicit conduct, and we have recently have some amendments. related to reducing the punitive approach towards persons engaged in prostitution and strengthening accountability for conduct that exploits or harms such persons. Also, the Criminal Code establishes liability for engaging in prostitution without limiting the application of this provision to women. At the same time, the article provides the sanctions for persons who obtain or benefit from such services, and also there are exemptions from the contravention liability where the person concerned carries out the respective acts against their will. We have also data which are segregated from the, so regarding if they are women or men, and data which concerns their adults or children. If we are comparing data from 2024 to 2025, we can see that there is a decrease of this, of this, the number of registration of these crimes. And also, the article from the conventional courts provides an exemption, as I mentioned, from the contravention liability where the person concerned carried out their respective acts against their will. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would like to give the floor for follow-up questions to Article 5 and 6 to Mrs. Tshiba, followed by Mrs. Toledo-Vasquez.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I would like to thank the delegation for the answers on Article 5. I would like to say that I didn't get response concerning the related joint protection of women and their children, when the question is about gender-based violence, domestic violence, and in relation to parental rights, to contact, which is also a problematic area, as I said. If you have something to tell me about that. Now concerning the, I would like to just comment with you and maybe just to take it as a recommendation if you think important. When listening to you, you have this coordinating body, this agency, as I said, for prevention and combating violence against women, domestic violence. It's a big asset if you have within this body a sector or section working on the implementation of the decisions from the international bodies, both from the European Court of Human Rights, because there is a body of law of legal practice, you know, concerning gender-based violence, exploitation, also gender-based violence, exploitation concerning vulnerable groups of women. And also too, but for treaty bodies like CEDAW decisions, as I see some of them, you know, some of them maybe you are not acquainted of, but they are there. I mean, they are not. fully implemented, like for the follow up of the recommendations that we made, both individual and general. So it's good to have such a sector. I don't know if you have, just tell me, because there should be somebody analyzing this. It is related, of course, with the cases of gross violations, of cases where we have femicide and in the cases when there is very, very serious violence, very serious harm to women and children. So this is what I want to say and also to really to group the sector that the analysis and from the analysis to make recommendations how to go further. There will be recommendations for the legislation. Then you will see how really it relates to the recommendations made to the country during the years in this sphere. I think it's a great opportunity since you have it. Thank you. And then about women and children also.

Thank you very much, Madam chair. I would like to thank you for the answers that have been provided thus far, and I want to ask in particular about a few points that I do not think I heard an answer to. First, the situation surrounding the deinstitutionalisation procedures for women and girls with disabilities, and what you are doing to try to prevent trafficking of women and girls with disabilities, both in residential institutions and those who are involved in a deinstitutionalisation process, in step with the decision from the European Court of Human Rights of 2025. In addition, on the criminalisation of sex workers, think it is good news that the penalties imposed have dropped, but that does not eradicate the fact that they are still punished for engaging in sex work, with all the consequences that come with that. I would also like to know, on that point, whether you have information about the recategorisation that I was talking about in criminal cases, in which those who begin investigating trafficking get classified as some kind of sex procurement or forced labour. I want to understand how that exposes women to risk. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. I just want to add on this issue of interpretation that my advice is that you leave the channel on English all the time. So whatever language is being spoken from the floor, you will have the interpretation into English. That's to make your life easier. And now I give back the floor to the delegation to answer the follow-up questions.

Thank you for your follow-up question. This year we approved a national program for this institutionalization of the persons with disabilities from our placement shelters for persons with disabilities. And I want to say that we just last year, we had some cases in a shelter for persons with disabilities, specifically on human trafficking, on forced labor. And as a result, what we did is we have trained all of our staff that are working in the shelters for persons with disabilities. And we have also improved the internal regulations for this type of shelters in order to prevent this phenomenon. Now, with this program for deinstitutionalization, our plan is to create and develop social housing for persons with disabilities so that they can be placed in smaller housing and basically to close down all the big placement centers that we are having for persons with disabilities. We will provide additional information as well, specifically on this in writing. Now, I also want to mention about the human trafficking piece. So in 2024, we've instituted the the functions, we've instituted specialists in the prevention and combating domestic violence and rehabilitation of crime victims. And here, their role is also to identify risks in the community, prevent this phenomenon, and provide these services. We've also, we've also have, we are also providing services through our hotline for persons with disabilities, which is run by an NGO and funded by the state government. And this hotline is also a source for a referral to social services, to the police, and for providing services. I also would like to give the floor to our representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Madame Chair, my name is Natalia Dubniak. I represent the General Police Inspectorate. In 2022, the General Police Inspectorate of Ministry of Internal Affairs was granted specific competences for the investigation and sanctioning of hate speech, following the adoption of law number 111 from 2022, amending the Criminal Code and the Contravention Code of the Republic of Moldova. As part of the implementation of the mechanism for collecting disaggregated data on the number, types and categories of offenses and contraventions motivated by prejudice, contempt, or hatred. Amendments were introduced to the automated integrated information system for the recording of offenses, criminal cases, and persons who have committed offenses, administered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs through its Informational Technology Service. Under Law No. 216 from 23, the participants in the information system include specialized subdivision conducting special investigative activities, authorities and bodies responsible for conducting criminal investigations, courts, and bodies responsible for the enforcement of criminal penalties. In cases involving prejudice-motivated offenses, the police, the prosecutor's office, and the courts are responsible for entering relevant information into the system. The police enter information at the stages of reporting, initiating an investigation, criminal proceedings. The prosecutor's office are at the stage of verification and referral of cases to court, and the courts are at the stage of recording the judgments and the decisions issued. Between 2021 and the year 2023, the information and statistical files used within the automated information system register of criminal and criminological information were reviewed, and new fields were introduced to enable the disaggregation of information concerning prejudice-motivated offenses. The register can now record not only the legal classification of an offense, but also the prejudice motive underlying its commission, even where prejudice is not an essential element of the offense. The system allows for the recording of prejudice motives based on a broad range of grounds, including national origin, sex, language, religion or religious beliefs, opinion, ethnic and social origin, disability, sexual orientation, age, race, colour, citizenship, political opinion, gender identity, health status and marital status, among others. This list is not exhaustive, as the system also allows for the manual recording of any other prejudice motif identified in a particular case. With regard to contravention, the collection, recording, processing, storage and updating of information, as well as the on-file registration of contravention cases and persons who have committed contravention are carried out through the automated information system for the recording of contravention. Contravention cases and persons who have committed contravention are administered by the Minister of Internal Affairs. At present, however, this system does not provide for the disaggregation of data according to protect grounds of prejudice motives, like the Register of Criminal and Criminological Information. As a next step, the contravention register is to be adjusted to enable such disaggregation. To ensure familiarity with the changes introduced and to improve the quality of data concerning prejudice-motivated offences, 141 operators of the Register of Criminal and Criminological Information from the northern, southern and central region of the country were trained in 2023. In parallel, during 2022-2025, the police of the Republic of Moldova systematically invested in strengthening the capacities of its personnel in the areas of equality and non-discrimination, prevention and combat of prejudice-motivated offenses and hate speech. In 2022, within the framework and the project of the Strengthening Diversity and Equality in the Republic of Moldova, supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented in line with the of the European Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova 2021-2024. 35 trainers were trained in equality and non-discrimination with a victim-centered approach to hate-motivated violence against LGBT persons, Roma, and other communities present in the country. In addition, two participants, including six women and four men, were trained specifically in the area of prejudice-motivated offenses. The training approach was expanded to cover the entire institutional chain, including first-line police officers, community policing officers, public security officers, criminal investigation officers, statistical personnel, and information system operators.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I think we can proceed to the next question.

Thank you very much. you have another? Are we okay? Okay, thank you. Permission to move to part two of the convention and have article 7 and 8 followed by article 9 formulate their question. We will try to answer them before the lunch break, but if not, at least We will start the interaction on these articles. For articles 7 and 8, I would like to give the floor to Mrs. Akia for four minutes.

Thank you very much, Chair. Distinguished excellencies, I too join my colleagues to welcome you to this constructive dialogue. The committee does commend the state party for the significant progress that you have made to increase the equal and meaningful participation of women in public and political life in all spheres, which is manifested with the election of for the second term of your president, who is a female. So congratulations. Excellencies, amidst all the progress you have mentioned and what we have read on, you get to find that also there are many women and girls, especially Roma women, women in rural areas, women and girls with disabilities that continue to face barriers that undermine their public and political participation. Some of these barriers include the deep-rooted discriminatory gender stereotypes that is perpetuated by patriarchy, that sexism. The harassment and the heavy burden of family and caregiving on women, inaccessible election and voting information and infrastructure for women and girls with disabilities, and of course, you know how elections are very expensive, not many women and girls can afford. My questions, Your Excellencies, are the first one, what concrete actions is the State party taking to remove barriers that I mentioned above that undermine the full, equal and meaningful representation of women, including Roma women, rural women, women with disabilities and other women in disadvantaged groups in public and political life to encourage them to equally participate? Two, Could the State Party please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, ethnicity, disability and location on the number of women participating in all fields of public and political life, including international organizations, diplomacy, defense, police, artificial intelligence, technology, and the judiciary, and of course, government departments, if you can? Number three, Excellencies, is quite a very long question. What concrete steps is the State Party taking to provide adequate gender responsive financing, because we know everything needs money. financing to one, to dismantle existing gender stereotypes, misogyny, patriarchy, and abuse, including sexual harassment, sexism, cyber bullying, that undermine women's equal and meaningful participation. Then two, what concrete measures is the state party taking to provide effective redress and survivor-centered support services for female victims of all forms of abuse in decision making? Then the third one, the targeted measures and to increase awareness for Roma women, all the women in disadvantaged groups to ensure that they have equal opportunities, then how are you ensuring to provide inclusive and accessible election information and infrastructure for women and girls with disabilities? And of course, that gender machinery, how are you strengthening it to monitor women's equal representation and influence in decision making? And lastly, to support financially candidates. The other question, which is the last one, is this is not a question, but it's also just to maybe to implore, you know, the 40% quota that represents four out of ten placement is higher than many other countries that have two third majorities. But however, the committee, like my colleagues say, the standard we are setting for international law is 50/50, which is parity. So we would like to implore the state party to look into moving from the 40% quota to 50/50. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mrs. Akyea. I would like now to give the floor in Arabic to Mrs. Hamida Al Shukairi to address Article 9. Please follow the interpretation. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, members of the delegation. I'd like to welcome you warmly in this constructive dialogue, and I would like to express my appreciation for all the information that you provided us with. We welcome the adoption of Law 253 of 2025 regarding nationality and its provisions and guarantees that promote equality between men and women when it comes to nationality issues. In this regard, Your Excellencies, I would like to recall that in its previous concluding observations on the Republic of Moldova in 2020, the Committee expressed concern about the nationality status of women and children in Transnistria and Gagauzia, as well as Roma women and children. It recommended that the State Party facilitate birth registration and the acquisition of nationality and raise awareness of the relevant procedures. Your Excellencies, let me remind that these issues were also raised again in the 2025 list of issues. In light of this, our Committee would like to ask, six years after its previous concluding observations, What has changed in practice and what tangible results have been achieved in addressing the previously identified barriers and ensuring that they no longer prevent birth registration and the acquisition of nationality? In light of the adoption of Law No. 253 of 2025, and given the need for a comprehensive national policy framework to prevent statelessness in Moldova, What steps has the State party taken or intends to take to establish such a framework and ensure the systematic monitoring and identification, as well as prevention, of cases of statelessness? What practical measures has the State Party taken to ensure the effective implementation of this law and to guarantee that all children are registered at birth and able to acquire nationality without discrimination, particularly Roma children, children born at home, children born to adolescent mothers, as well as children born outside marriage? Does the State Party collect data disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, region, and legal status on birth registration and applications for nationality, including applications that have been rejected, delayed, or remain pending. If such data is available, Your Excellencies, to what extent does the data reveal disparities in access to birth registration and acquisition of nationality, particularly among women, girls, and families belonging to disadvantaged groups? Available information indicates that certain administrative and awareness-related barriers persist in Gagauzia, along additional structural barriers in Transnistria. So what measures has the State Party taken to ensure that these circumstances do not prevent women and children from registering births, obtaining civil status documents, or acquiring nationality? Are there practical arrangements in place, including simplified or alternative procedures to enable women to register their children's births and obtain the necessary documentation despite these constraints? And lastly, how does the State Party ensure that women, particularly Roma women and women in Gagauzia, are aware of their rights and the procedures relating to birth registration and acquisition of nationality? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'd like now to give the floor back to the delegation to attempt in the remaining 10 minutes, but we have to stop at 1:00. So even if we don't finish, we will adjourn until 3:00 p.m. and come back. So try to provide as much as you can responses to 7 and 8 and 9 before we adjourn the meeting at 1:00 for the interpreter's sake as well. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to start with your questions and I want to give the floor to Ludmila Pavlova from the Ministry of Education and Research. If you can in three, four minutes to provide the answers to this question. I will intervene while my colleague is connecting. Regarding the measures undertaken and the progress achieved during the last few years to facilitate birth registration for children in vulnerable situations, we would like to mention that the procedures and conditions for birth registration are regulated by Law No. 100 from 2001 on civil status. And since 18 of September of 2024, following the introduction of the information system for medical certification of birth and death under government decision number 278 from 2024 and the Ministry of Health water number 756 from 17 September 2024.

Births have been registered automatically.

And directly on the basis of electronic medical birth certificate issued by, you know, the informational system that that the hospitals, the medical institutions are having under the law number 222 from 10th of July 2025. We've introduced amendments to law number 100 from 2001 on civil status acts, and under Article 21, a child birth may now be registered by any competent authority, so regardless of the place of birth or the parents' place of residence or temporary residence.

Furthermore, Article 22 allows a child's birth to be declared by the parents' relatives, another person authorized by the parents.

Or the guardianship authority if the parents are unable to declare the birth. In accordance with the list of services that are provided by the Public Service Agency and the applicable fees, approved by government decision 966 from 2020, birth registration is provided free of charge for all applicants. Regarding the information and outreach activities in Roma communities, we are implementing the following measures. We have a continuous dialogue with community mediators, and in each rayon, we have a community mediator specifically for Roma. and their role is to inform Roma people about the procedures and requirements for registering civil status events, and they can also register the births of the children. They can inform the authority for the registration. Then we also have individual consultations for Roma people who contact the territorial offices of the public service agency.

Now, as far as the civil status for those that are living in Transnistria region.

The procedure that we are having is that the competent authorities that are at the line, I mean, at the border with the Transnistrian registry, they are providing support and they are registering the civil status documents in the Transnistrian region. I would like now to give the floor to our representative from the Ministry of Education.

Thank you. Thank you, dear Chair. I would like to mention that the Ministry of Education and Research expanded affirmative actions, policies, financial support and dedicated quotas across all educational levels to guarantee access for Roma girls, young girls, to the educational system. And now we have to mention that the enrollment of Roma is growing up. For instance, today we have in general education about 2,000 of Roma people. Out of this number, 1,000 are girls. and this number is increased in comparing with the previous year, when we have 1,687 Roma people. Also in preschool education, the enrollment grew from 216 to 488 children. The Ministry provides a set of affirmative measures to support Roma children. For instance, we have affirmative admission measures and quotas starting with this year for admission of Roma people in general education, vocational education, and higher education. This quota is about 10% of general quota for each level. Also, I'd like to mention that now we are in the final stage for approving the new program for support of the Roma population for the period of 2027-2030. which placed increased emphasis on education, social inclusion and access opportunities, including measures promoting gender equality and inclusion of Roma women. Now, this draft program is under review at the European Commission. Also, recently, we amended the government decision 557/2013 on community on activity of community mediators. It was a huge consultation with the representative of Roma communities, including the Roma alliances, community mediators and civil society. And within these amendments, we clarified the roles and responsibility of community mediators, establishing the transparent requirement and continuous training requirements, enhancing monitoring and reporting mechanisms, and also enhancing direct involvement of Roma and other vulnerable communities in decision-making through their regular consultation. We started to implement the merit scholarship for Roma students since 2023. It is worth mentioning that scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and performance and are not gender-based. We have every year 120 scholarships. scholarship that are distributed by the level of education. And in 2023, we have 22 girls and 28 boys. And now in 2025, we have 58 girls and 55 boys that are beneficiaries of this merit scholarship program. We are continuing with this program for the academic year 2026-2027. Also, I would like to mention that in this year, in the spring, was launched the accelerated learning program to support the reintegration of children who were out of the school, particularly Roma children and refugee children from vulnerable families. And this program will focus on.

Thank you so much. Yeah, we will continue after.

There are some other measures. We can provide the information in written.

Okay, thank you. Thank you very much and apologies, but it's something that we have to respect also for our interpreter. We can take additional information when we resume at 3 p.m. So I leave it to the head of delegation to decide how this additional information will be shared, answers to Article 7 and 8. and nine. And after that, we will see if there will be remaining follow-up question. For the time being, I'd like to adjourn the meeting and thank you and wish you a good lunch break and see you here at 3 p.m. sharp. And before I adjourn the meeting fully, I want the announcement from the Secretariat to be made.

45 to 2:45, there will be a thematic briefing here in this room by the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, and it is on strategies for action on article 16 of the CEDAW convention.

45 to 2:45 here in this room.

Thank you.

I hope many of you will be able to be present. It's really a very important briefing. We're having it every few years. Thank you. Bon appetit. The meeting is adjourned.